Mushroom Barley Pilaf

June 5, 2003|Deborah S. Hartz

Mushroom Barley Pilaf

(Farfel and Mushrooms)

OurFood EditorDeborah S. Hartz shares a favorite recipe each month.

I recently attended my first bar mitzvah. A booklet provided by the boy's family explained: "Bar mitzvah is not a mystical ritual confirmation which somehow confers Jewishness upon a child. It is a religious-legal term which marks a coming of age."

And for Alex Falk, of Clark, N.J., what a coming of age it was. A three-day celebration of kosher food, family and friends, not to mention an 18-piece band.

It started Friday night with Shabbat dinner at the Deli King restaurant. When we arrived, there were bowls of sweet coleslaw and sour pickles on the tables. As each person took their place, the waitress brought bowls of vegetable, barley and mushroom, kreplach or matzo ball soup, depending upon which each diner selected.

I opted for the latter and got a softball-sized fluffy matzo ball in rich chicken broth. I'd never tried kreplach so, being the intrepid foodie that I am, I asked for a bowl of that, too.

No problem.

Tucking into the kreplach, I discovered they are made of dumpling dough wrapped around meatballs. A whole new kind of dim sum.

After the ritual salt was sprinkled and the challah blessed and sliced, there came heaped platters of tender pot roast (brisket, of course) with rich, brown gravy, chicken Francaise heavily breaded and fried, crisp roast chicken and kasha varnishkes.

Cousin Stanley described this as "Wheatena with bow ties." I'd always been adverse to this dish because the buckwheat groats (or kasha) it's made with has a strong, earthy smell that I don't find appetizing.

This version didn't change my mind.

However, I was intrigued by a platter of what looked like irregularly shaped Israeli couscous. I'd never seen anything like it. A taste proved it rich and satisfying. I asked what it was and our host said "barley and mushrooms." But this wasn't like any barley I'd eaten, or even seen.

The weekend continued with a huge Saturday breakfast after services at the temple (I counted four whole smoked whitefish on the table), a sit-down dinner for hundreds (choose prime rib, Chilean sea bass or chicken piccata; and don't miss the silver lamM-i napkins) and, finally, chocolate chip pancakes and leftover lox and chopped liver for breakfast on Sunday.

But even after all that eating, memories of the barley dish remained poignant. So at home, I thumbed through Jewish cookbooks looking for something similar. I found many mushroom barley soup recipes. But even though I remembered mushrooms, that dish was no soup.

I finally found a Mushroom Barley Pilaf recipe that looked promising, but locating the right kind of barley proved a trick. I knew it wasn't the quick cooking, pearled or even the kind marked "barley medium" by Quaker Oats. From experience I know these all get soft and, I hate to say it, slimy when cooked. I didn't even see anything appropriate in the Jewish-food section of my supermarket.

Then I visited a Jewish grocery in Delray Beach and found "toasted barley-shape egg noodles" by Manischewitz. I talked to the chef at the store and turns out this is just the thing to use. I returned home, tried the recipe and, sure enough, it turned out just right.

Looking through cookbooks once again -- this time for a dish using these barley-shaped egg noodles or farfel -- I found many. But I still like the one I give here the best.

The egg barley, a pasta, cooks up tender yet keeps some texture and the grains take on the irregular shapes I remembered in the original dish. This version includes some frozen vegetables for color and taste; a good addition I assure you. I offer you this recipe to enjoy with beef or chicken. Vegetarians will savor it all by itself for a hearty meal.

SIDE DISH

MUSHROOM BARLEY PILAF (FARFEL AND MUSHROOMS)

IF EATING THIS AS PART OF A KOSHER DIET, USE VEGETABLE BROTH IF YOU WANT THE DISH TO BE PAREVE. USING VEGETABLE BROTH ALSO MAKES THIS VEGETARIAN. 1 (14-ounce) can vegetable broth, chicken broth or beef broth